This invention relates to electronic content storage techniques. The invention is particularly although not exclusively concerned with content storage for use in generating websites.
By content is meant any information or goods that are delivered electronically to a consumer, either directly or indirectly. For example, content may be embodied in HTML pages and their associated images, and delivered directly to users through the World Wide Web. However, the advent of more general eBusiness (electronic business) applications has led to a corresponding generalisation in the definition of content to include, for example:                Web pages and images.        Multimedia files (e.g. audio & video clips).        Streaming media.        Shopping catalogues.        “Soft” or “digital” goods for sale (e.g. downloadable music and software).        Functionality, as embodied in CGI scripts and their modern equivalents.        
Such content is generally held in some form of content store. For example, in a conventional website, the content store may be an ordinary filestore containing prepared HTML pages. Alternatively, in a dynamic website, the content store may be a relational database holding raw data, and publishing may use some dynamic page construction mechanism such as CGI or ASP, or a template rendering mechanism, to construct web pages when required.
A problem with known electronic content storage techniques is that they do not provide any assistance with creating and maintaining complex content structures, such as may be required for example in creating a group of interlinked websites, a group of web pages within a site, or a single complex web page. The object of the present invention is to provide a novel technique for storing and accessing electronic content, which addresses this problem.